1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a method for transporting articles in a system for transferring such articles between machines situated on different floors of a building, and an apparatus therefor.
More specifically, it is related to a method for transferring bobbins between a roving machine and a spinning machine situated on different floors of a building.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of manufacturing many identical products at the same time on a machine and subjecting the products to the same treatment simultaneously after transfer to another machine are used in various industries, such as the textile industry, the electric or electronic industry, and the food industry, for example.
However, many difficulties arise in the transfer of articles such as, for example, a materials, intermediate products, and final products, and particularly when the machinery is situated on different floors in a factory, the system for transferring the materials and products becomes very complex. Accordingly, there is a strong demand for a simpler, more reliable and more effective system.
The above problems will be explained in more detail hereafter, using the textile industry as an example.
In the conventional system of processing textiles, roving bobbins doffed from a roving machine are stored inside a storage box provided on a carrying cart, and the cart is moved to a position in front of an elevator. The cart is then taken to another floor of the building by the elevator, where, for example, a spinning machine is situated, and moved to a required position at the spinning machine. The roving bobbins are then taken out of the storage box and hung on bobbin hangers. Also, empty bobbins removed at the end of a spinning operation of a spinning machine are stored in the storage box of a carrying cart and transferred to a roving machine.
However, when the roving bobbins are carried in the storage box of a carrying cart, a problem arises in that the bobbins are damaged because of a mutual abrasive movement between the bobbins or abrasion between a bobbin and inside surface of the storage box during while the bobbins are stored in the storage box.
To overcome this problem, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 54-44786 disclosed a carrying cart having a pair of movable endless chains with a plurality of horizontal supporting beams swingably mounted thereon, and the roving bobbins are held on the beams by inserting the bobbins vertically into the beams.
However this method, the need for a complicated device such as an endless chain in the carrying cart increases the transfer costs, and many problems remain because it is labor- and cost-consuming to transfer the carrying cart to a spinning machine and to hang the roving bobbins on a bobbin hanger at the spinning machine.